Surviving and Winning Health Disparities

Clara Wilkerson is an American Medical Association award-winning producer. Ms. Wilkerson won a 1996, FREDDIE, international medical film award, for producing a documentary broadcast on schizophrenia. In 1995, she founded CRW Medical Productions; a Washington, DC based media company that specializes in continuing medical education for doctors, TV documentaries, and patient educational programming. Today, Ms. Wilkerson is Executive Producer of Surviving & Winning series of twenty-six half hour TV episodes for that visually introduce the latest medical treatments and scientific breakthroughs.

Judy Ribble is MedscapeÕs director of CME, serving as in-house consult in CME accreditation and regulatory matters and fostering relationships with other CME providers.Medscape is accredited by the ACCME and is the health professional Internet portal of WebMD Health, a division of the WebMD Corporation.The Medscape Web site has posted CME activities certified by more than 90 accredited providers for AMA PRA category 1 credit.

Dr. Ribble earned her PhD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania [MCP] and has directed CME programs at MCP, Jefferson Medical College, the Arthritis Foundation, the American College of Physicians [ACP], Lifetime Medical Television, and Reuters Health. She has been involved in planning or presenting CME programs in Israel, Germany, Bermuda, Canada, and Australia.She was involved in the development and marketing of ACPÕs Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program (MKSAP), Lifetime Medical TelevisionÕs "Doctors' Sunday" (that aired over the Lifetime cable network for 10 years), and ReutersÕ CD-ROM series GeoMedica.These roles prepared her for the challenge of adapting traditional rules and regs for delivery of certified CME activities over the Internet. Currently Dr. Ribble is a member of the AMAÕs National Task Force on CME Provider/Industry Collaboration, and Past Chair of the Committee on Membership.She served four terms on the Alliance for CMEÕs Board of Directors and is currently Associate Editor of the Alliance Almanacand a Fellow of the Alliance.

Bernadine Healy, a physician with a career in medical education, research, patient care, and health policy, has led the Research Institute at The Cleveland Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the College of Medicine and Public Health of Ohio State University, and the American Red Cross.She is Medical and Health Columnist for US News and World Report, and serves on the PresidentÕs Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

W. Michael Byrd, Instructor, Division of Health Practice, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; co-author of An American Health Dilemma: Race, Medicine and Health Care in the United States, 1900–2000 and American Health Dilemma: Race, Medicine, Health Care in the United States.An acknowledged authority on the medical and public health histories of African Americans, Dr. Byrd is a board certified obstetrician gynecologist whose career has been concentrated in academic medicine and health policy. He is currently an instructor and senior research scientist in the division of public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health and serves as a consultant physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. His primary interest focuses on the health policies and concerns effecting African American and other disadvantaged minorities in the United States health system. He is a member of the Institute of MedicineÕs Committee on Understanding and Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care. Dr. Byrd was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in the US Army Medical Corps on active duty in Vietnam. He continues to work with the US Congress, NMA, the Summit Health Coalition, the CBC Health Policy Task Force, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, and the IOM. Dr. Byrd is presently the lead author of a book titled An American Health Dilemma, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Linda Clayton, Instructor, Division of Public Health Practice, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health; co-author of An American Health Dilemma: Race, Medicine and Health Care in the United States, 1900–2000. Dr. Clayton is a gynecologic oncologist-obstetrician gynecologist whose career has been concentrated in academic medicine and health policy and management. She is currently associate medical director for the division of medical assistance of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, an instructor and senior research scientist in the division of public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health, and an instructor and staff physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. Her focus is health policy and concerns impacting African American and other disadvantaged minorities in the US health system. A widely published author, Dr. Clayton also serves as a consultant and visiting faculty with the National Cancer Institute, the National Medical Association (NMA), and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Dr. Clayton has testified before the US Congress on African American and disadvantaged health matters and serves as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust and resource person for the Office of Minority Health and Indian Health Service. She was an NMA-CBC representative on the Clinton Health Reform Task Force.

Dr. Nelson was elected to the AMA Board of Trustees (BOT) in 1994 and re-elected for second and third terms in 1997 and 2001. He served as secretary-treasurer of the AMA from 2002-2003, and has been a member of the AMA-BOT Executive Committee since 1998. During the past 10 years on the AMA-BOT, he has served on the audit committee, finance committee, the task force on fraud and abuse and as a spokesperson for AMA anti-violence activities. Dr. Nelson came to the AMA-BOT with a long history of service to organized medicine. He is a former president of the Utah Medical Association and the Salt Lake County Medical Society. His national service began in 1981, when he was elected to the AMA House of Delegates. Dr. Nelson served the AMA as a member and chair of its council on legislation and was a charter member of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission, which advised the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He recently served the National Advisory Committee for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and was appointed to serve on the Medicaid Advisory Commission.